WASHINGTON â€” Hazel Dickens, a folk singer and bluegrass musician who advocated for coal miners, has died at age 75.

Dickens died Friday morning at a Washington hospice of complications from pneumonia. Her death was confirmed by Ken Irwin, a founder of Rounder Records, her label for about 40 years.

Dickens, a vocalist and double-bassist, became a fixture in the bluegrass circuit in the 1960s and 1970s with her musical partner, Alice Gerrard. The duo performed as Hazel & Alice and released several albums, emerging as some of the earliest prominent women in bluegrass and paving the way for other female folk singers.

Dickensâ€™s music was later featured in "Harlan County, USA," Barbara Koppleâ€™s 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about Kentucky coal miners.

"She cared a great deal for working people and the downtrodden and wrote about issues that generally were not addressed in bluegrass or country," Irwin said.

Among her honors was a 2008 induction into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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